A few people on HN have mentioned that TVs these days can be used as credible monitors, and can be cheaper/bigger/etc. Has anyone got any advice on this matter - specific models, gotchas watch out for, etc?
I've been using TVs as monitors for years and one thing I can say for sure from my own experience is this: Try not to let any static images stay on the screen for long periods of time. This isn't really an issue with actual computer monitors, but when using a TV as a monitor, it almost always leads to burn-in of the images.
Another note is that you'll likely want to turn off some of the features that benefit you on the TV side of things (motion flow, image sharpening, etc). These features actually make the experience worse when using a TV as a monitor.
As with computer monitors, you'll tend to get what you pay for according to a logarithmic scale of price and performance, but the cheapest one will be absolutely amazing by historical standards and not worth having according to some people. The key factor is budget rather than technology.
I used to use a TV as part of a triple screen setup, but I went back to dual screens because the TV was noticeably worse than the monitor. My tv wasn't great, and my monitors are fairly nice, but there are a few things I've noticed about TVs that make them less suited for computer work than monitors.
For the same resolution, TVs often have a larger pixel pitch than monitors. I haven't noticed this as an issue for 4K tvs, but there are a few 1080p tvs that have pretty bad pixel pitch. My 32" 1080p tv has horrible pixel pitch. It is really only noticeable at the distances you'd view a monitor from, but it's really annoying.
Monitors compete on things like gray-to-gray response time, ghosting and input lag. TVs care about ghosting, but contrast ratio and black level is a bigger concern for them. I find that TVs have a fairly noticeable input lag, even when in game mode, but I'm really sensitive to this issue.
TVs tend to be slightly larger than monitors for a given screen size. It's not a huge difference, but if you want to do multi-display setups the bezel width can be a difference.
My best friend uses a TV as a monitor and is not bothered by any of these issues in the least, so it basically comes down to personal preference.
4 comments
[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 12.9 ms ] threadAnother note is that you'll likely want to turn off some of the features that benefit you on the TV side of things (motion flow, image sharpening, etc). These features actually make the experience worse when using a TV as a monitor.
For the same resolution, TVs often have a larger pixel pitch than monitors. I haven't noticed this as an issue for 4K tvs, but there are a few 1080p tvs that have pretty bad pixel pitch. My 32" 1080p tv has horrible pixel pitch. It is really only noticeable at the distances you'd view a monitor from, but it's really annoying.
Monitors compete on things like gray-to-gray response time, ghosting and input lag. TVs care about ghosting, but contrast ratio and black level is a bigger concern for them. I find that TVs have a fairly noticeable input lag, even when in game mode, but I'm really sensitive to this issue.
TVs tend to be slightly larger than monitors for a given screen size. It's not a huge difference, but if you want to do multi-display setups the bezel width can be a difference.
My best friend uses a TV as a monitor and is not bothered by any of these issues in the least, so it basically comes down to personal preference.